Ferrari team boss Stefano Domenicali believes the electrical failure that halted Felipe Massa during the safety car period in China cost the Italian squad its first podium of 2009.
Massa had moved up from 12th on the grid to third as others pitted, and Domenicali said his pace on heavy fuel promised much for the remainder of the race.
"It's very unfortunate because if you look at the first part of the race, Felipe was fantastic," said Domenicali.
"He was really much faster than (eventual winner) Sebastian Vettel, who had low fuel, and we had double the fuel.
"In those conditions it was perfect.
"But then we had that electronic problem and stopped, which is a shame because I'm pretty sure that with that strategy and the fact that he was doing fantastic laps, he would have been on the podium."
Massa said his electrics had begun playing up during the initial safety car period at the start of the race.
"I had some small issues on the first safety car, but then it looks like it was much better, and then on the second safety car (it came back) in a much stronger way so I lost the throttle," he said.
His team-mate Kimi Raikkonen reported similar issues, and suspected the rain was to blame.
"A few times it didn't run very cleanly, but sometimes that can happen when you follow people and it gets full of water," he said.
For most of the race the Finn - who only finished 10th - was struggling more with a lack of grip.
"In the beginning it wasn't too bad but then after a few laps I didn't have any grip so it was hard to stay on the circuit, and the other cars were faster and they got past," said Raikkonen.
"I don't think it's tyre temperature, I think it's just that we didn't have the grip.
"I was aquaplaning and sliding, and every time I touched a wet patch I just lost the front end."
http://www.itv-f1.com/News_Article.aspx?id=45628&PO=45628